The buildup to the Daytona 24 Hours is a long, anxious process. Starting the week before the ‘Roar’ test weekend in early January, Daytona International Speedway becomes the nucleus of international motor racing; a hub of newsflashes, speculation and comment about what is to be expected from the first race of the season.
It remains like this until the end of the month, once the chequered flag falls on the afternoon of Sunday, January 31. This busy period ensures that the Daytona 24 Hours remains one of the most anticipated and supported races of the year, not just in sportscar terms but within the entire motorsport realm.
In 2016 the race continues to sit at the top of the IMSA calendar, marking the start of the WeatherTech Sportscar Championship. 55 entries are listed this year, which is a slight increase on the 2015 edition, with Prototype and Prototype Challenge sharing 21 of the grid berths.
Prototype doesn’t boast a capacity grid this year, but what it lacks in numbers it makes up for in car quality and diversity. Daytona Prototypes still make up the majority of entries, but LMP2 is also well represented as teams begin to evaluate their racing options for 2017, the year of the LMP2 regulations overhaul.
From the DP camp, defending race winners Chip Ganassi Racing will be looking to achieve another big result with their pair of Riley-Fords. The two driver lineups are full of speed, with Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon, Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray gunning for win number two in the #02 car. They will run alongside Andy Priaulx, Brendon Hartley, Alex Wurz and Lance Stroll who command the #01 machine – which gives team boss Chip Ganassi four world championships, two Le Mans victories, seven NASCAR race wins and two Indy 500s to play with.
Wayne Taylor Racing was the only DP team to lead a Roar session, and has been one of the strongest teams at the Daytona 24 Hours in recent years. The addition of former F1 race winner Rubens Barrichello to the #10 Dallara-Corvette should give Wayne Taylor’s crew a good chance of victory if they can avoid both incident and error. Last year’s agonising late race penalty will still be fresh in the minds, but any previous disappointment will have to be forgotten if WTR is to claim its first Daytona triumph.
Elsewhere in the DP camp, VisitFlorida Racing is hoping to start its 2016 season strongly after encountering a number of mechanical issues at the Roar. Action Express Racing will also be in the hunt with the two-time championship winning Coyote of Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi (joined this weekend by Ganassi convert Scott Pruett and Audi’s Filipe Albuquerque) boasting one of the most experienced lineups on the grid. Eric Curran, Dane Cameron, Simon Pagenaud and Sunoco Challenge winner Jonny Adam will take the reins of the sister Action Express car. Highway to Help completes the list; the #50 Riley-BMW once again racing for the good cause of Alzheimer’s research.
There are five entries in LMP2, which may seem thin but judging by the pace of the cars at the Roar there is a fair chance that we will see the overall race winner come from this tight group. Michael Shank Racing and Extreme Speed Motorsports were dominant in testing, sharing five session-topping laps between them.
Their tried and tested Ligier JS P2s are complemented by the newer but equally quick BR01, entered by Russian globetrotters SMP Racing. Mazda could also spring a surprise with its LMP2 coupe, which now runs with a petrol rig as opposed to the diesel engine that caused all sorts of problems during the 2015 season.
Completing the Prototype entry is the Panoz DeltaWing. The Elan-powered car has shown considerable pace in preseason and could run comfortably at the sharp end of the field if it can match known speed with reliability. The lineup is a strong one, as regular DeltaWing drivers Andy Meyrick and Katherine Legge join forces with German GT racer Andreas Wirth and young American Sean Rayhall, previously of the PC ranks.
Eight entries make this year’s Prototype Challenge class the smallest of the four, although the spec rules never fail to produce close, exciting racing despite the less-than-ideal numbers.At the Roar the teams were evenly spaced throughout the weekend, with Starworks and BAR1 Motorsports setting the pace. However, the even lap time patterns of the Oreca FLM09s at Daytona makes this by far the hardest class to call.
Core Autosport heads into the race as one of the favourites with Colin Braun, Jon Bennett, Mark Wilkins and Martin Plowman back in the lineup.
The Core squad came agonisingly close to victory last year, with the win eventually going to rivals PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports. There are other strong entries that will be doing their utmost to disrupt the Core and PR1 outfits, however, including Starworks Motorsport which brings two PC cars to Daytona – one featuring IndyCar racer Jack Hawksworth and the other including European Formula 3 champion Felix Rosenqvist.